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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28666596">The Latter of the Binary Suns</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualspacecowboy/pseuds/bisexualspacecowboy'>bisexualspacecowboy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Aftermath - Chuck Wendig, The Mandalorian (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:41:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,413</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28666596</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualspacecowboy/pseuds/bisexualspacecowboy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Cobb Vanth reflects on stories of his past while he drowns thoughts of the Mandalorian that killed a Krayt dragon.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Din Djarin/Cobb Vanth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>48</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Latter of the Binary Suns</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is kinda boring, more of me playing around with the character of Cobb Vanth, but I hope you enjoy anyway!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Before Mos Pelgo was a barren wasteland, left abandoned by a rebellion that claimed to care for them, Mos Pelgo was the home of a boy. A boy named Cobb, with calloused hands who used to climb onto his father’s back while the two of them worked their meager moisture farm, who used to rejoice when he heard the sound of his mother returning after a long day of keeping order in their little town.<br/>
</p><p>There was a story Caik Vanth used to tell his son, back in the days when Cobb still had a squeak of a voice and would refuse to sleep until his mother returned home. Caik had not married Nayeve for her nurturing spirit-- he had known what he was getting into when she only agreed to a date if he beat her in a drinking competition, only to lose terribly and love her instantly-- but that didn’t make the evenings easier. Not when the little boy would leave his cot in the hopes that she had returned, that she would be able to kiss him goodnight. Sometimes, if Caik was lucky, Cobb would only ask for the story.<br/>
</p><p>“Do you know the story of Tatooine's suns?” Caik would ask, his voice teasing.<br/>
</p><p>Cobb, who had heard the story a hundred times over, pulled his thin sheet close. His eyes half-lidded, he would reply, “No. Will you tell me, Dad?”<br/>
</p><p>Caik would smile and lean back against the wall, his eyes resting on the view outside his son’s window. “There was once a goddess of light, called Neos. Neos was beautiful in every way, with skin scorched dark from the light she held inside herself. She rode through the sky each day, blissfully unaware of the god beneath her, the god Tatoi. He was god of heat, of the fire that hid between each grain of sand. Every day, he watched Neos. There was no one, no thing in this world, that Tattoo loved more than Neos. He spent his days watching her, his love for her growing hotter and hotter, as she rised to the spot where he could see her clearest, then wane as she returned to hiding between the night stars. He slept when she did, woke when her light became visible. The few people living on the planet then would travel by nighttime, as to avoid the sting of Tatoi’s hot passion against their feet.”<br/>
</p><p>“Like when I tried to farm without wrapping my feet.”<br/>
</p><p>“Exactly, my child, exactly. Now hush, no more interrupting. You see, Tatoi woke one day and realized he could no longer simply watch Neos in the sky. He must talk to her, he must love her. He decided that he would pull her out of the sky.”<br/>
</p><p>“No! Dad, she loves the sky!”<br/>
</p><p>“She does, doesn’t she. But Tatoi thought maybe, just maybe, she would love him just as much, if not more. So he found himself a rope and a hook, and threw the hook into the air at midday, creating quite the sandstorm as he circled his hook around, hoping to gain momentum.”<br/>
</p><p>“Did he catch her?”<br/>
</p><p>“He did, and at first, it was all he hoped it would be. It seemed as though Neos was falling out of the sky, falling into his arms. Too late he realized that he was being pulled from the sand, that the hook and rope had merely yanked him up into the air, trailing behind her as she circled the planet that had been his home.”<br/>
</p><p>“Did he let go?”<br/>
</p><p>“No, he chose to stay. He chose, because it was then he realized that this was Neos’ life. Neos could only love him back if he followed her, if his footsteps were always a bit behind hers. She shined so brightly, and he was lucky to shadow her, to be so near to all that she was. To this day, as you look in the sky, the higher sun, the brighter sun, is Neos. She shines even brighter now that she has a partner, and Tatoi is a little below, holding still trailing behind her and loving her so much that he draws more heat up from the sand and brings about sandstorms as grand displays of affection.”<br/>
</p><p>By now, Cobb would always be almost out, and Caik would see the telltale signs of his wife returning from a long day's work. “Son,” he would whisper, patting his little head, “When you fall in love, do not try to pull them down to you. Follow behind them. Let them love their lives more than they ever loved you. You both will shine brighter for it.”<br/>
</p><p>Years had passed since Cobb had heard this story, but it echoed now. Mos Pelgos was a barren wasteland and he had followed suit. No armor. No family. No dragons to slay. No mysterious Mandalorian that had intrigued him so desperately.<br/>
</p><p>There were still problems. But it had been months since the Krayt dragon had been slayed, and most of his services rendered as Marshal of Mos Pelgo had been keeping neighbors from petty squabbles and making sure the poorer in the community had enough water to make it through the next month. It was the normal problems now; nothing spectacular or honorable. Water, as there was never enough, shelter, as the sandstorms never really ceased.<br/>
</p><p>He laughed to himself now, thinking of his father’s description of the sandstorms of “fits of passion”. They felt more like rage, like the planet itself was trying to fend off the pesky little nats living on its surface. If the planet could just blow hard enough, it could clean itself off, it could make everything as it should have been.<br/>
</p><p>The bar and the bottle were near empty. Cobb Vanth thought again about that Mandalorian. It almost made it worse, all those nights they shared a tent, all those nights that Cobb turned and asked him questions, questions he was so reluctant to answer.<br/>
</p><p>His name was Din, that was all he’d gotten out of him. Cobb had said Mando wasn’t a suitable name, a good nickname, but he needed something to tie it back to. A name to remember him by. Din.<br/>
</p><p>Didn’t help much that Din had left behind a sliver of beskar, barely anything, something that must’ve been from old armor- it didn’t shine like Din’s armor had. They’d shaken hands, and in Din’s had been that sliver. That piece of something, saying, “I respect you, Cobb, and someday, if you need me, I’ll be there.”<br/>
</p><p>Cobb needed him constantly, and that was the problem. It drove him mad, to want something so completely impossible to have. Someone who never revealed their face.<br/>
</p><p>Was that part of the problem? The mystery of it all? Would this want go away if he just had the opportunity to see him, to understand him, to know more about him?<br/>
</p><p>What scared him more than anything was the answer being no. Was that there was no person under that helmet, male or female, that would make Cobb less infatuated. There was something about the way that Din fought that caught him off guard. He didn’t care much for his own life, it seemed. He was reckless and fearless and everything Cobb wanted in a partner.<br/>
</p><p>Sometimes Cobb thought about hiring someone to track him down. He was thinking about it fairly seriously after his third bottle of wine that evening, and that’s when the story came back. Cobb could almost hear his father’s whisper, the pat on his head.<br/>
</p><p>“Do not try to pull them down.”<br/>
</p><p>That was the worst part about falling head over heels for someone you’d only known a few weeks. Especially one who was a bounty hunter. Cobb knew that no matter what he did, there would be an adventure out there more exciting than he could ever be.<br/>
</p><p>So he left some units on the table in the bar and returned home. His thoughts returned to Din, as they had been doing so often lately, but this time he decided that he would be content in his place as the second of the binary suns.<br/>
</p><p>He would go about his day, trailing behind, preparing for sandstorms and distributing water. He would follow the sun that was Din, the Mandalorian out there finding his people and saving young children, and hope someday that the two of them would shine brighter together than they ever had apart.</p>
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